China to develop next generation AI cruise missiles

Beijing: China will develop its next- generation cruise missiles based on a modular design, allowing them to be tailor-made for specific combat situations with high level of artificial intelligence (AI).

Wang Changqing, director of the General Design Department of the Third Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, said “We plan to adopt a ‘plug and play’ approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions and their specific requirements. Moreover, our future cruise missiles will have a very high level of AI and automation. They will allow commanders to control them in a real-time manner, or to use a fire-and-forget mode, or even to add more tasks to in-flight missiles. The future combat will require weapons to be cost- efficient and flexible. Therefore, the modular design will be a good solution.”